Eulogist at European-Democracy.org seems to be embarking on what looks to be an interesting series of posts on the primary concern of modern western society: the impact of terrorism on our civilisation’s “values” and the lessons we can learn in dealing with terrorism. It is a topic I have covered here briefly, and which bears much thinking about.

The challenges the world is facing are not new, they just seem to be on a bigger scale than what has gone before. But the past can, nonetheless, teach us much. Leaping into the fray with a cack-handed, unthinking approach rarely works (as those who are spending their every spare hour playing the newly-released Halo 2 are no doubt learning to their cost). We need a more thoughtful approach to terrorism, and to the underlying causes.

With Arafat’s death comes a new opportunity for helping bring to an end the on-going chaos of the Middle East, and with Bush’s second term about to begin the US President has a clear mandate to do what he thinks best. Will he learn from the mistakes of the past, or carry on blundering about abroad and curtailing civil liberties at home as he has done for the last four years? The omens, as yet, don’t look promising.